​Bing & RuthHalifax Music Co-op, Halifax NS, May 21

Pianist/composer David Moore brought his New York-based collective back to Halifax for a performance suite that illustrated the incredible weight of quietness. This incarnation featured a septet anchored by Moore on piano, gently guiding minimal themes with patiently repetitive figures, very occasionally swelling into key-hammered clusters of sound. Providing texture and accompaniment were two duos on bass and clarinet, mulling the low end of sound spectrum and creating shuddering drones that produced alternating warmth and shivers.

Mike Effenberger's work with tape delay and other electronic enhancements was so subtle it was often only felt, heard only when all the instruments dropped away. But the most remarkable effect was a non-musical one — the seemingly heart-arrested attention the audience in the high-ceiling converted church space was paying. The sounds of breath being held added an edge, making the music seem that much more urgent, despite its apparent calm.